I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (often abbreviated as ISIRTA) was a BBC radio comedy programme that was developed from the 1964 Cambridge University Footlights revue, Cambridge Circus., as a scripted sketch show. It had a devoted youth following, with the live tapings enjoying very lively audiences, particularly when familiar themes and characters were repeated; a tradition that continued into the spinoff show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. The show ran for nine series and was first broadcast on 3 April 1964, a pilot programme having been broadcast on 30 December 1963 under the title "Cambridge Circus", on the BBC Home Service (renamed BBC Radio 4 in September 1967). Series 1 comprised three episodes. Subsequent series were broadcast on the BBC Light Programme (renamed BBC Radio 2 in September 1967). Series 2 (1965) had nine episodes, series 3 (1966) and series 6 to 8 (1968 to 1970) each had thirteen episodes, while series 4 (1966–67) and 5 (1967) both had fourteen episodes. After a three-year hiatus, the ninth and final series was transmitted in November and December 1973, with eight episodes. An hour-long 25th anniversary show was broadcast in 1989, comically introduced as "full frontal radio". The title of the show derives from a phrase commonly used by BBC Announcers in the age of live radio, following an on-air flub: "I'm sorry, I'll read that again." Basing the show's title on the phrase used to recover from a mistake set the tone for the series as an irreverent and loosely produced comedy show. I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, an unscripted comedy panel game which is a spin-off from ISIRTA, was first produced in 1972 (invented by ISIRTA regular Graeme Garden, who was anxious to develop a comedy format that didn't involve a script deadline each week).

Cast

Influence

As well as giving rise to The Goodies team, ISIRTA shows the roots of the Monty Python team very clearly, with Cleese, Chapman and Eric Idle all regular script contributors. The show's creator Humphrey Barclay went on to create the TV show Do Not Adjust Your Set, featuring the rest of the Python team, as well as Idle. ISIRTA's roots can be traced back to classic radio comedies like It's That Man Again and The Goon Show. As with Round the Horne, the cast's adventures would sometimes be episodic with cliff-hanger endings each week as with "The Curse of the Flying Wombat" (3rd series), and "Professor Prune And The Electric Time Trousers" (7th series). Christmas specials normally included a spoof of a traditional pantomime (or several combined). They had few qualms about the use of puns – old, strained or inventive – and included some jokes and catchphrases now considered politically incorrect. Garden's impressions of the rugby league commentator Eddie Waring and the Scottish TV presenter Fyfe Robertson, Oddie's frequent parodies of the game-show host Hughie Green, and Cleese's occasional but manic impressions of Patrick Moore (astronomer and broadcaster) also featured. As the only woman on the show, Jo Kendall voiced all the female characters (with the exception of Brooke-Taylor's oversexed harridan, Lady Constance de Coverlet) and occasionally extended into having conversations with herself in different voices. (In one episode of the serial "The Curse of the Flying Wombat", not only did Kendall play two characters in the same scene but so did Tim Brooke-Taylor, resulting in a four way conversation between the two actors). Kendall also wrote some of her own material. The show ended with an unchanging sign-off song, which Bill Oddie performed as "Angus Prune" and was referred to by the announcer as "The Angus Prune Tune". Spoof dramas were billed as Prune Playhouse and many parodies of commercial radio were badged as Radio Prune.

Repeats and spinoffs

Several cast members appeared in the radio comedy panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, a spinoff from ISIRTA that has outlived it by decades. Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor continued as regulars on the show. All series of ISIRTA have been rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra (available on digital television, DAB digital radio and the web), though some episodes (series 8 episode 2, and series 9 episodes 5 & 6) were not transmitted due to potentially offensive content. Infrequently, Australian listeners found ISIRTA in the 5.30am vintage comedy timeslot on ABC Radio National (available on the web to overseas listeners). It is not certain of the reasons due to its being pulled off-air, as this slot has now since been replaced with a business program. The official story of ISIRTA was published in The Clue Bible by Jem Roberts, in 2009. In 2015, plans were announced for a live "Best Of" homage show, using material by Garden and Oddie reworked by Barnaby Eaton-Jones, Jem Roberts and Dirk Maggs and performed by Hannah Boydell, David Clarke, Barnaby Eaton-Jones, William KV Browne and Ben Perkins. The show was a sell-out success at The Bacon Theatre, Cheltenham in February 2016 and a tour was licensed by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie to the same company, the Offstage Theatre Group. In February 2017, it was announced that the British tour would take place later in the year, with guest appearances by Garden, Oddie, Taylor and Jo Kendall. In 2019 four new episodes with the slightly modified title "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again... Again" were recorded and broadcast on Radio 4 Extra with some original cast including Tim Brooke Taylor, together with newer performers such as Barnaby Eaton-Jones.

Catchphrases

Episode and sketch titles

The episode titles (for shows from series 3 onwards) are unofficial and mostly come from the last sketch in each episode, which usually took the form of a short play. Figures in parentheses after each title are the Series and Episode numbers, where known. For example, '(S9E7)' refers to Series 9 Episode 7.

Regular characters of the radio show

Prune Plays

Writers and cast in order of appearance:

ISIRTA songs

Comedy songs replaced traditional songs during episodes.

Commercial Releases

A vinyl compilation album of sketches was released on the Parlophone label in 1967, and later reissued on a double cassette by EMI in 1993 alongside the London recording of Cambridge Circus. Another compilation was released by BBC Records in 1978, reissued on CD in 2011 as part of the Vintage Beeb range. Four volumes of compilation cassettes were released by the BBC Radio Collection between 1989 and 1997 containing complete episodes. These were re-released on CD in 2007 alongside a fifth volume. A tie-in book of sketches was published by Javelin in 1985, illustrated by Graeme Garden.

Sources